PAC, the Contemporary Art Pavilion of Milan, hosts the second appointment of “The Relationships beyond Images” (Le Relazioni oltre le Immagini) program, a series of conferences exploring the current trends in public art and analyzing their relation with contemporary social space. This series is part of the “ArtLine Milano” public program, a City of Milan public art project based in the CityLife Park.

Are there any other possible forms of democracy? How does art in the public sphere become a tool for imagining and exploring a participatory democracy based on critical reflection rather than on the pursuit of consensus? What role does the artist play in a public and shared space?

This conference day, through the contributions of museum directors, theorists, curators and artists, aims to address the relationship between art, institutions and collective imagination by answering these questions from a theoretical-historical-philosophical and practical-political-artistic point of view, without neglecting the normative aspects and the limitations associated with operating in a public space.

Two of the interventions will also provide the opportunity to meet two protagonists of PAC’s incoming exhibition season: Tania Bruguera, who will showcase her work at PAC in March 2020 with a solo show during Miart and Art Week, and Iida Shihoko who will curate an exhibition on contemporary Japanese art in autumn 2020, also at PAC.

Irit Rogoff is a writer, educator, curator and organizer. She is Professor of Visual Culture at Goldsmiths, University of London, a department she founded in 2002. Rogoff works at the meeting ground between contemporary practices, politics and philosophy.Her current work is on new practices of knowledge production and their impact on modes of research, under the title of Becoming Research (soon to be published). As part of the Freethought Collective, Rogoff was one of the artistic directors of the Norwegian Triennial TheBergen Assembly in September 2016 and editor of The Infrastructural Condition published in its wake. Rogoff was also co- founder in 2017 of The European Forum for Advanced Practices, a European forum for the development of a set of principles for an advanced and practice-driven form of research. In 2019, Rogoff received an honorary doctorate from Aalto University in recognition of her work indeveloping and instituting thefield of Visual Culture.

Charles Esche is director of Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven; professor of contemporary art and curating at University of the Arts, London and co-directorof After all ResearchCentre. He is an advisorat Janvan Eyck Academie, Maastricht.He has (co)curated Powerand Other Things, Europalia, BOZAR, Brussels2017; ArtTurns, Word Turns, Museum MACAN, Jakarta 2017; LeMusée Égaré, Kunsthall Oslo 2017 and Printemps de Septembre, Toulouse 2016; Jakarta Biennale 2015; the 31st SãoPaulo Bienal, 2014, U3 Triennale, Ljubljana, 2011; RIWAQ Biennale, Palestine, 2007 and 2009; the Istanbul Biennale, 2005; Gwangju Biennale, 2002 amongst other non-museum exhibitions. He received the Princess Margriet Award for Culture in 2012 and the CCS Bard College Prize for Curatorial Excellence in 2014.

Antoni Muntadas, his practice addresses social, political and communication-related issues, the relationship between public and private space with in social frameworks, and investigates channels of information and ways these may be used to censor central information or promulgate ideas. He works with different media including photography, video, publications, Internet and multi-media installations. Since 1995, Muntadas has put together a set of works and projects grouped under the title On Translation. Their content,dimensions and materials are highly diverse, and all focus on the author’s personal experience and artistic activity innumerous countries over a period of thirty years.By grouping such works together under this epigraph, Muntadas places them with in a body of experience and concrete concerns regarding communication, the culture of our times, and the role of the artist and art in contemporary society.

Shihoko Iida was curator at the Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery from 1998 to 2009, visiting curator at the Queensland Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern Art in Brisbane for two years,worked for the Aichi Triennale in 2013 and the Sapporo International Art Festival in 2014, and for the Aichi Triennale in 2019.

Tania Bruguera is one of the most influential artists on the global art scene. In order to de fine her artistic practices, she has developed concepts suchas “behavior art”(arte de conducta), focusing on the limits of language and body in relation to the reaction of spectators, and that of “useful art” (arte útil), about injecting a real transformation into certain political and legal aspects of society. Her work has earned her many awards and has been showcased in several venues including Venice Biennale, Documenta, the Tate Modern Turbine Hall, MoMA, and Guggenheim.

Federico Rahola teaches Sociology of Cultural Processes at the University of Genoa, co-directs the periodical Etnografia (Il Mulino), is the author of Zone definitivamente temporanee. I luoghi dell’umanità in eccesso (Ombrecorte,2003-2015) and–with Massimiliano Guareschi – of Chi decide? Critica della ragione eccezionalista (Ombre Corte,2011) and Forme della città (AgenziaX,2015); he is currently participating in a collectivere search on migrant routes with in and around European borders.

Michael Rakowitz is a Chicago-based installation and public artist. He is Professor of Art Theory and Practice at Northwestern University. His work has appeared in venues worldwide including P.S.1, MoMA, MassMOCA, Castello di Rivoli, Sharjah Biennial 8, Tirana Biennale, National Design Triennial at the Cooper-Hewitt, and Transmediale 05 in Berlin. He has had solo exhibitions at Tate Modern and Whitechapel Gallery in London, Lombard-Freid Projects in NewYork, Alberto Peola Arte Contemporanea Galleryt in Turin, and Stadtturmgalerie/Kunstraum Innsbruck. He has been the recipient of a Sharjah Biennial Jury’s Award, a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship, the Dena Foundation Award, and the Design21 Grand Prix from UNESCO. Rakowitz will exhibit at Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea in autumn 2019. He has been recently awarded with The Nasher Prize for Sculpture 2020.